Relaxation in Costa Rica

In December, we enjoyed a relaxing stay on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica: beautiful vistas, great food (lobster, chicken dishes, tropical fruit, desserts, and so much more) and drinks, lots of swimming, and pleasant weather.

View of the beach from the Riu Palace of Costa Rica

Google Cloud Platform NYC Meeting

I attended the Google Cloud Platform NEXT meeting in NYC today to keep up with cloud service industry developments. Just so that you know that Google Cloud Services isn't all serious business, see my 180 spin:

First Day of Spring in NJ! Or, is it still Winter?

View of the first day of Spring 2015 in Princeton NJ

Philadelphia Flower Show - Rated Best Show in the World!

This year we made it to the Philadelphia Flower Show which  received 17 International Festival & Events Association awards for the 2014 show, “ARTiculture” including the top prize, the Grand Pinnacle Gold Award. The Philadelphia Flower Show awards included five Gold, five Silver, and seven Bronze.

KitSplit is receiving a Lot of Attention

KitSplit, the creative artists rental network, founded by our daughter Kristina and Lisabeth Kaufman, is receiving a lot of attention. This week two articles were published on this startup. Forbes presents "Rent-a-Drone: Creatives Can Rent Oculus Rift, Google Glass And More Through KitSplit". While Fast Company writes "This 'Airbnb For Creative Equipment' Will Rent You Drones, Oculus Rifts, Google Glass, More".

Kristina has cofounded a business - KitSplit

Kristina has co-founded a business named KitSplit which is currently in operation in a beta state. KitSplit is meant to help photographers, video artists, and other creative types who have to rent expensive equipment to reduce their costs. It does so using a web site whereby they can rent to and from others in the KitSplit network. This peer-to-peer network is similar to Airbnb in which people rent their living space to others. KitSplit has started with many of Kristina's friends and associates in the NY Metro area signing up at KitSpit's new web site.

Teddi wrapped in a towel

Toy Yorkie joins us in Princeton

After a lot of research on the web and the third trip to Brooklyn to choose a female Toy Yorkie, we finally came home with Teddi:

Summer Asian Lily and the World Trade Center

Today, feels like summer - a warm, humid day in Princeton. 

Thought I'd post a few summer images.
A view of the new World Trade Center from the Hudson River.
And, a view at of this year's Asian lily plant in our front yard:

Complimentary Admission to Cloud Expo 2014 in New York

My firm, Persimmon Telecommunications is offering customers, partners and prospects a complimentary Gold Pass for the entire Cloud Expo 2014 three day event in Manhattan. This pass retails for $2200! It gives full access to all 175+ technical and strategic sessions across 9 tracks, including all Keynotes, General Sessions, Discussion Panels, Technical Breakout Sessions, and the Expo Floor... everything that a fully paid $2,200 Gold Pass offers, in fact, with the exception of Luncheon and the collectible conference bag. If you want to know more about today's cloud offerings and what is coming, this is the place to be. To obtain a complimentary Golden Pass, contact Persimmon Telecommunications.

Another Victim of Northeastern US Snow Storms

Titan, this week's storm, had a much smaller effect on Princeton NJ than originally expected. However, here is a photo from last month showing a victim of this winter's snow storms stuck in about a 15 foot high pile of snow in the Nassau Park shopping center.

Shopping cart in 15 foot pile of snow in parking lot.

Presentation scheduled on Cloud Services for Personal and Small Business Use

Last Tuesday, I spoke on Cloud services at the Computer Learning Center at Ewing. That talk was oriented toward services in the cloud that are most valuable to individual users, services like file backup and file sharing amongst different devices. On February 25, my presentation, Cloud Services for Personal and Small Business Use, will put more emphasis on services that are valuable to those with home offices and other small businesses. This presentation will be at the Princeton PC Users Group monthly meeting.

Fall in New Paltz NY

This fall we spent a weekend in New Paltz NY. After attending a Tai Chi workshop, I joined Valorie to enjoy the town of New Paltz and environs. We stayed at Moondance Ridge B&B, a fantastic little inn on grounds that were landscaped with a very environmentally conscious design. Here is Valorie in the labyrinth:

The grounds are certified as a Wildlife Habitat with the majority of plantings being white spruce which have a life span of 400 to 800 years.

Skiing Telluride Opening Day

This year's Rocky Mountain weather worked hand-in-hand with our travel plans made in May allowing us to ski Telluride on opening day. This year's snow conditions at Telluride were perfect on our first full day in Colorado, Thanksgiving, which happened to be the opening day for this season's Telluride skiing.

Joe on Telluride slopes opening day

Do you see the Telluride airstrip in the upper right?

October 2013 Morning Glories in Princeton NJ

Happy Thanksgiving! Wow - winter temperatures are definitely here. Last month we still had beautiful morning glories along our front steps:

Summer Week on Long Beach Island

This summer we spent a week in the borough of Barnegat Light on LBI. Barnegat light seemed to be affected by Sandy the least of all towns on LBI. It probably is at least partly because of the dunes that they have developed between the ocean and the borough. This is a natural protection from wind and ocean. Some family from the Baltimore-Washington area came to visit. You see some of us here:

Both Joe and Kristina refreshed our wind surfing skills:

America's Phone Companies should Maintain Reliable, Affordable Basic Phone Service

Some local phone companies are making an effort to avoid providing traditional basic phone service to all service areas. Not having traditional wired service can be a problem during a disaster when many buildings are without power and cell phone towers are either out of service or overwhelmed with calls. A more detailed discussion is presented in "No Second Class Services at the Jersey Shore" and "AARP, Consumer Groups Fighting to Protect Landline Telephone Service".

There are many competitive services available which you can find at "Local and Long Distance Phone Service Options". Many of these phone service options are very appropriate for certain situations, however, many of them require that you have a source of power at your location. Plan ahead for power outages and cell tower outages. One approach is to install a generator and/or a UPS so that you still have power even if the utility company is not supplying power to your location. This approach is being taken by many who experienced many days of no power after Sandy.

This morning's visitor

While watering some trees planted this spring, I heard a movement nearby, looked up, and saw:

Visitors to Princeton

Today, there are a lot of visitors to Princeton for University Reunions. We have our own visitors. You may see a hint of them in this window box that is just beside our front door.
For a closer view, see the closeups on Flickr.

Irene feeds Sandy

It's now the 13th year of this century. Already this century New Jersey has experienced two major hurricanes. Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. After Irene struck, President Obama declared all 21 counties of New Jersey to be a Disaster Area. It was the worst storm in the history of PSE&G, our utility company.

Then, in 2012, Sandy struck. Sandy had the largest diameter ever recorded of any Atlantic hurricane. It impacted twice as many PSE&G customers as Irene. Hopefully, this sequence of worsening disasters doesn't continue in 2013 and the rest of this century.

Here I am sawing Irene droppings into kindling. I used remnants of Hurricane Irene to feed the fire that warmed is in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy while we were without the electric power which is necessary to run modern heating systems.